fonzo.biz

If the title sounds redundant, then … good. So according to my brain, textbooks , and this map,
Egypt is definitely one hundred plus a little more percent an African
country. This is what I was taught, and, looking at a map, this is what
I would believe. However, in recent time I have heard an ever-growing
belief that Egypt is indeed separate from Africa. Odd huh?

 >> Go back in history a few years.

So
the first occurrence was a little while ago in which I was having a
conversation with some folks and someone tried to justify the
separation of Egypt from Africa based on the fact that Egyptians do not
physically look like other Africans. Yes, someone did in fact say that.
I attempted to explain that they do not look like people's traditional
(dark skin, afro, etc) physical view of Africans, but then again, a
good portion of the Northern countries do not share those same physical
attributes either. In the end though, she continued to believe that
they were not in fact Africans. Oh well.

 >> Fast-forward to today.

Today I was browsing some news stories over at BBC News, one of my favorite places to get the latest news.

Anyway,
on the front-page BBC has a world-map in the upper left corner of their
website. I have seen this plenty of times before, but never actually
used it until today. So, while using it I noticed that Egypt was not
placed in the “Africas” category but instead was placed in the
“Middle-East” category. Interesting huh? Well, I thought so. So much
that I decided to write a letter to BBC News asking for their reasoning
on this issue. I wonder if I'll get an actual response.

Anyway, I have included the e-mail for those interested, or bored. Enjoy.

Dear BBCNews:

I
feel that your site offers an unbiased stance on many subjects that I
am unable to obtain by the few US-based news agencies available to me,
and therefore I frequently visit your site. I usually access pages
directly through the RSS feed, as it fits my personal needs. I
especially enjoy the international news, as I enjoy knowing what is
going on in other corners of the world.

However, today while
browsing your front-page (news.bbc.co.uk) I noticed something that
slightly troubled me.In the top left portion of your webpage you have a
map of the world separated into various categories such as Americas,
Europe, Asia-Pacific, etc. I think this is a useful feature as it
allows me to hone in on specific parts of the world with one click of
the mouse. This however, is also the portion of the site where my issue
stems.

In the map of the world, the part that caught my
attention was your definition of African & Egypt. On the map you
have placed Egypt into the “Middle-East” category. I find this odd
since Egypt is clearly an African country, and you have an “Africas”
section. I find this interesting and at the same time troubling as I
feel it helps to perpetuate the ever-growing belief that Egyptians are
not Africans. Therefore, I was wondering why your news agency chose to
classify Egyptians in this manner and if there is anything that can be
done to resolve this issue. I look forward to your response. Thank you.

So
that's it. That is my complaint to BBC News and people in general. Stop
attempting to reclassify Egypt as a non-African country. It's located
on the continent of Africa and thus is an African country. Plain and
simple.

>> UPDATE!!!

Wow, so I wrote this
blog hella late last night, wake up this morning, and BBC News has
already responded to my inquiry. Impressive, very impressive. I
honestly didn't expect to even get a response from them, so, kudos to
you BBC. Anyway here's their response:

Thank you for
your email.  For our purposes we consider the Middle Eastto cover
the Arabic speaking word plus Iran, Israel and the Kurds.

RegardsBBC News Onlinehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/

So
there you have it. The justification from BBC News on why Egypt is not
listed with the rest of the African countries. And while I still don't
agree with Egypt being listed seperate from other African countries, at
least they have an actual reason for their actions.